Terasawa - Writer who first develops the idea that Godzilla is a dinosaur exposed to radiation.

Emi - Girl from the future, she does not want to see Japan destroyed.

Miki Saegusa - Researcher at the ESP Institute who uses her powers to track Godzilla.

M-11 - Android from the future, not only is he amazingly fast, the modern tin man can repair anything.

Professor Fujio - Dinosaur expert who teaches in a high school.

Mr. Shindo - Leader of the Japanese troops on Ragos Island and quite a motivational speaker, but his command of tactics and war leaves much to be desired. Now a businessman and owner of the lucrative "Dinosaur World" franchise, vaporized by Godzilla.

Chuck Wilson - Corrupt leader of the time travelers, I am pretty sure that reading his lips would not be very difficult. (Watch the way he forms words.) Inside the flying saucer/time machine when Godzilla destroys it.

The Plot:

Giant monster films are usually fuddled enough without throwing time travel into the fray, but here is blending of the two from our friends at Toho. Despite having limited natural resources it turns out that Japan dominates the future, they have even purchased Africa and South America. (Thereby cornering the market for continents shaped like obtuse triangles or something.) Chuck Wilson and his band of rebels steal a flying saucer/time machine craft and return to change the course of history. They drop in on present day Japan (Where present day equals the early 90's.) and gather some facts before pinpointing the dinosaur which will become Godzilla. The creature is teleported away from the nuclear test area and cute Ghorats left in it's place, creating a monster they can use to destroy Japan. Hopefully I have not lost you yet, because a nuclear submarine accident exposes Godzillasaurus to radiation and the King of the Monsters is still created, though larger and more aggressive. Emi is not very happy with events and tries to help her ancestors, only to be captured by M-11. So what does she do? Well the intrepid young lady reprograms the android to be on her side. (So much for administrator passwords and encryption technology.) Around the same time that King Ghidorah is sinking beneath the waves she uses a shuttle to teleport the main time traveling craft in front of Godzilla, he obliges by obliterating the ugly thing. Unfortunately he is pretty much set on obliterating everything, so Emi returns to the future with hopes of rebuilding Ghidorah and saving Japan. A probable side effect of this colossal project is that NAPA becomes a world power, but perhaps that is just my imagination running wild after ninety minutes of rubber monsters and time travel.

Things I Learned From This Movie:

Kaiju never rot.

During World War II one of the U.S. amphibious landings failed due to a dinosaur attacking the troops.

Aliens hate helicopters.

Important people are forced to ride in the back of tactical military trucks.

When traveling back in time to 1944, do not choose a landing point under naval bombardment.

Emi has returned from the future with her supercharged Mecha-King Ghidorah. The only thing she didn't have upgraded is the targeting system, which is rather silly. How do you miss something that stands a hundred meters tall?

This is one of my all time favorite Godzilla films (mainly because it features the return of my other favorite monster, KING GHIDORAH!) and it was a real high water mark for the Heisei series. Great effects, strong story, and Akira Ikufube's rousing music blasting as a bigger, meaner Godzilla marches out of the ocean. A real blast.

Despite the high budget special effects of this movie, I still prefer the low budget special effects of the 1960's Godzilla movies. However, this is quite good a movie. There is some explanation on how both Godzilla and Ghidorah were formed.